Monthly Archives: September 2011

It is not easy to explain to those of you who have never experienced the joys of a dry docking just how tedious it can be. Let me put it this way; I had a pedicure less than a week ago, but after three days in the boatyard, my feet look like this:

Trust me, I am doing my best to hurry the process along. The first and most important thing in my experience is to dig out the Joy of Cooking and make baked goods for the boys with the big tools, to keep energy up and spirits high.

I am due out at the end of the week and it is critically important to stick to that deadline, because my friend Steve is flying in from Nashville on Sunday for a cruise. Those of you who follow this blog will remember that he is the one who spent last winter trying to turn a country ham into prosciutto. ‘Oh darling,’ he gushed when I asked him how he wanted to spend the week. ‘I just want to see fabulous gardens and country houses. Show me your England!’

Hmmm.

I am thinking that he is picturing something like like this:

Or, to be perfectly honest, something like this:

So I need to get out of here, because he’s definitely not prepared for Brentford: